ISLAMABAD (AP) — State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumed flights to the United Kingdom on Saturday for the first time in five years following the lifting of a ban imposed over a fake pilot license scandal.
The airline faced a ban from both the UK and the European Union in June 2020 after a deadly crash in Karachi that killed nearly 100 people, and subsequent revelations of pilots with fake licenses.
The European ban was lifted in November 2024 after extensive safety audits, clearing the way for PIA to restore suspended routes in January of this year.
The first Boeing 777 flight from Islamabad to Manchester on Saturday marked PIA’s return following months of inspections and reforms that restored Britain’s confidence in Pakistan’s aviation system.
“The flight to Manchester is a remarkable beginning, but we are firmly determined to start flights to London and Birmingham next,” Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told a ceremony held at Islamabad International Airport.
Asif said in a televised address that the flights were essential for the more than 1.4 million Pakistanis in Britain and Europe, and noted that the remittances they send were the backbone of Pakistan’s economy.
“Providing them with direct flights is both a moral and national duty," he said. “These services will save them time, offer reasonable fares, and provide direct air links to their homeland.”
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Mohammad Faisal, hailed the relaunch as a major step forward for economic and cultural ties between the two nations.
“This milestone will bring major economic benefits; generating substantial revenue, boosting trade and tourism, and expanding the movement of people and goods,” he said at a recent event in London.
FILE -In this June 8, 2013 photo, a Pakistani International Airline plane takes off from Benazir Bhutto airport in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons in recent days, including for the father of a large donor to his super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a woman whose sentence he commuted during his first term but who ended up back in prison for a different scheme.
Trump commuted the sentence of Adriana Camberos just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That followed her being convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the U.S. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.
In 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case, this one involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, prosecutors said.
The Camberoses were among 13 pardons Trump issued Thursday, along with eight commutations. An additional pardon was announced Friday for Terren Peizer, a resident of Puerto Rico and California who headed the Miami-based health care company Ontrak.
Peizer had been convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison, and fined $5.25 million, for engaging in an insider trading scheme to avoid losses exceeding $12.5 million, according to the Justice Department.
The president has issued a number of clemencies during the first year of his second term, many targeted at criminal cases once touted by federal prosecutors. They’ve come amid a continuing Trump administration effort to erode public integrity guardrails — including the firing of the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.
Also pardoned this week was former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who had pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing had been set for later this month.
Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars, something Vázquez’s attorneys opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.
They had noted that Vázquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.
Also involved in the case was banker Julio Herrera Velutini, whose daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $2.5 million to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2024, and gave the group an additional $1 million last summer. The case's third defendant was former FBI agent Mark Rossini, who was also pardoned by the president.
The recent wave of clemencies joins previous Trump pardons of Democratic former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican ex-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.
Trump also pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after a tax fraud conviction and made headlines for threatening to throw a reporter off a Capitol balcony over a question he didn’t like. Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes, also got Trump pardons.
The president also pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in a bribery and conspiracy case. He later expressed regret and frustration for having done so, however, when Cuellar announced he was seeking reelection without switching parties to become a Republican.
President Donald Trump points after arriving at Palm Beach International Airport on Air Force One, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
